I wouldn't be sure what episode to introduce the world of Doctor Who to someone who doesn't know what it's all about, until know. Tom Baker episodes still have a special place in my consciousness, but with this episode, among a few others, David Tennant really makes his mark as the, uh, sixth or seventh doctor (maybe eighth). This doesn't show a viewer some of the iconic characters like the Daleks or K-9, and in fact it doesn't even really make the Doctor a major character like in other episodes. He appears mostly on a 'screen', talking to the real protagonist of the episode, Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan), via a time travel device, sort of. But he makes his appearance wonderful in the episode, like a mystic or something, and helps Sally Sparrow realize her potential: that is, to get the Police Box back to the Doctor in time and to never blink at the statues.
There's some mind-f***ery in the episode as well, at least at the start, but this is part of what I loved about it. At first you see how Sally Sparrow is pointedly singled out, like people come to her with the knowledge that she'll need to know what they tell her, be it a certain 'grandson' character, or a black dude who in one scene asks her out, then time travels and then appears to her years later (though she's still the same age) as an old man in a hospital bed. What the gist of it is is that Sally Sparrow is important, and that she can help the Doctor with her 17 DVDs, and all she has to do is to elude the "Weeping Angels", a group of assassins in the guise of statues who, when you're not looking at them (or blink) creep up on you and kill you. And when I say 'creep' I'm not being facetious.
What starts as coincidence for Sally Sparrow becomes something like fate, as if for a few minutes she becomes apart of the Matrix or other, and the Doctor's role in this is explaining only so much of the "Big Ball of Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" (simple when he says this it's a laugh riot for some reason). But the time-travel paradoxes and craziness is just one part of what makes the episode great. It's the story's construction, the acting, the humor, the action, the suspense, and the horror (yes, horror) that make it so memorable and exciting. And for Carey Mulligan she could have done no other acting except this performance and be set for a long time as a quasi-reel. She's so good here that she nearly usurps Tennant when they finally have their "real" scene together (that is when he's out of 1969 talking to her via transcript and DVD). The dialog is fresh and witty, and its well self-contained in its 45 minutes; you almost wish it would go longer, but in a way it doesn't over-stay its welcome like a few other Doctor Who episodes (you know the ones, like in seven parts or something).
It's surely a fan favorite, but if you've been looking for that one episode to show the friend or family member who isn't sure about the show or character, here's as good a place as any to start.
There's some mind-f***ery in the episode as well, at least at the start, but this is part of what I loved about it. At first you see how Sally Sparrow is pointedly singled out, like people come to her with the knowledge that she'll need to know what they tell her, be it a certain 'grandson' character, or a black dude who in one scene asks her out, then time travels and then appears to her years later (though she's still the same age) as an old man in a hospital bed. What the gist of it is is that Sally Sparrow is important, and that she can help the Doctor with her 17 DVDs, and all she has to do is to elude the "Weeping Angels", a group of assassins in the guise of statues who, when you're not looking at them (or blink) creep up on you and kill you. And when I say 'creep' I'm not being facetious.
What starts as coincidence for Sally Sparrow becomes something like fate, as if for a few minutes she becomes apart of the Matrix or other, and the Doctor's role in this is explaining only so much of the "Big Ball of Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" (simple when he says this it's a laugh riot for some reason). But the time-travel paradoxes and craziness is just one part of what makes the episode great. It's the story's construction, the acting, the humor, the action, the suspense, and the horror (yes, horror) that make it so memorable and exciting. And for Carey Mulligan she could have done no other acting except this performance and be set for a long time as a quasi-reel. She's so good here that she nearly usurps Tennant when they finally have their "real" scene together (that is when he's out of 1969 talking to her via transcript and DVD). The dialog is fresh and witty, and its well self-contained in its 45 minutes; you almost wish it would go longer, but in a way it doesn't over-stay its welcome like a few other Doctor Who episodes (you know the ones, like in seven parts or something).
It's surely a fan favorite, but if you've been looking for that one episode to show the friend or family member who isn't sure about the show or character, here's as good a place as any to start.